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I think the point about motivated users is important. If your content
is valuable enough, they will struggle with your interface. If you
track those struggles, then you have the kind of data you need to
make the interface more usable. If your content is not of a high
enough value, the user will just abandon you.
Classic example: Early Automatic Teller Machines did not have a
button for 'Fast Cash from Checking'. Once the statistics told the
banks that 80% of our ATM transactions fit that model, they added
the button and shortened the queues at ATM machines.
The way to get usability? Do the best design that you can. Then,
assume that your design will be a big failure when you publish it.
Have the resources standing by to go in, perform triage and fix it.
Jim Shaeffer (jims -at- spsi -dot- com)
> >>> "Roy Jacobsen" <rjacobse -at- microsoft -dot- com> 08/08/01 10:35AM >>>
> I think it's _almost_ a chicken-and-egg situation. You're right about
> the "king locked in a tower" situation. Another way I've heard it
> phrased is "If the user can't find the info, as far as they're
> concerned, it doesn't exist." But the site/help/manual has to suck
> pretty bad if it is completely unusable to even the most motivated
> users. On the other hand, if the content is AWOL, then even the most
> brilliantly usable site/help/manual won't bring them back.
>
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A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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